MilkManMike

Awesome man! Awesome

Well, this thread has me seriously considering planning a trip up north next year around the monster again. Sounds like the kind of event we could do with more of. one sees this all over though. Most of the races are becoming very watered from a riding viewpoint due to over built/manicured trails. Even at the Enduro WC events there are riders calling for the routes to be made “friendlier”… when these guys are riding 160mm+ Enduro rigs…. When lots of guys happily hit those some trails day in day out on 130mm trail bikes. If it wasn’t for work taking me to Europe once or twice a year in the summer, and I can link a proper alps MTB trip to that, I would have sold my Enduro bike already. I hardly ever ride it. Seriously considering it anyway and, and just renting a bike for the Alps once a year.

With Trek and specialised this is generally possible. They have regular product demo days, and I have also often been loaned a shop demo for a day or two while servicing my bikes if the salesman knows I’m in the market for a new bike. But it helps having a good relationship with your local bike shop.

Well, there are tons of gravel races calling themselves MTB races to accomodate those riders. The monster has never tried to appeal to that sort of rider, and I am glad to hear they still sticking to what the event has always been.

Assuming in your analogy the Titan is the RS4, the Trek the Polo Vivo? Im not sure that analogy works here. More like A4 Allroad trying to race a 4x4 Double cab. On a decent gravel road, it might be faster, but as soon as you go through the farm gate, the bakkie wins every time. Comfort and speed wise. Especially when the driver is not a WRC ace. Same goes for 130mm trail bikes. My strava results confirm, I’m faster on pretty much every single track section I regularly ride, both up and downhill on my trail bike, than on my XC bike, and only marginally slower on the tar and gravel road bits to get there. 130mm trail bikes are the absolute best of both worlds, and the number of them you are seeing at multi day races proves this time and again. A change of tires on a 130mm trail bike makes it a very competent XC machine, but even the gnarliest of tires on an XC machine, wont make it a trail bike.

Magaliesberg trails are known for those pesky round baboon head rocks. The magalies monster has always had hectic technical climbs. Part of what makes that race what it is. Too many people ride Sani2C thee days and think that’s what MTB is. Those over manicured trails on Sani2C spoil most of the fun. Magalies Monster is one of the races I really miss living in the Cape, and probably the only one day race I would consider going up north for. That’s a proper MTB race.

Because a lot of the Local is Lekker brands re actually manufactured in the east as well, and get whacked with all the duties. The stuff that really is made locally, is normally done at much lower quantities, so they don’t have the economies of scale of a lot of the big brands. But there are also a few great deals on locally made stuff… just not bibs in my experience, the European brands bibs are just on a different level in terms of quality. But gloves, tops, jackets, socks etc etc etc… I try support local as far as possible.

Does it have to be carbon? If yes, why? Admittedly, that is a pretty good deal on the sale price right now, but other than the carbon frame, that depending on your needs, could be a positive point, the rest of that build is pretty rubbish. That Judy fork is horrible, very flexy, had one on a scale a few year back. SX drivetrain is also horrible. Even NX is borderline. I wouldn’t look at SRAM drivetrains below GX. The lower range drivetrains is where Shimano really shines. Deore and SLX are really good compared to the lower level sram stuff. At R40k, I would rather look at an allu frame with better build kit on. Trek Top Fuel 5 at R35k is in my opinion a much better deal. Admittedly still not a great fork, but the recon is at least a little stiffer than the Judy (Judy is 30mm alluminum stanchion, vs recon 32mm Steel) - Judy is lighter, but at a huge cost in stiffness. If you weight anything over 75kg, I wouldn’t dream of riding a Judy. https://www.trekbikes.com/za/en_ZA/trail-mountain-bikes/

Customer service doesn’t seem to be at issue here. Pandatron jumped the gun with this complaint. He knew the shipping was 3-7 working days. I have an online store too. We only update order statuses from processing to complete once the items have been collected by the courier and the purchaser is sent the waybill. As someone else has already mentioned, with load-shedding and all the other issues businesses are dealing with, phones can become problematic. Solomons is not exactly some fly by night operation, they have been around for years. It would be reasonable to give them the benefit of the doubt, and only become concerned if the agreed to shipping timeframe has elapsed. If it was my brand being slandered here like this I would be fuming. I still think the reasonable thing for the admins to do here is nuke this entire thread. OP can come back and complain later if he actually has a real problem that can’t be resolved directly. I have a feeling his original username may in fact be Pandatron. Decided he will back himself up seeing as no one else is.

Don’t worry about the registration, you only need to show your ID to register it, not your license. In fact, you can register a vehicle on your name even if you have no license at all, the title (natis) registration has to do with ownership, not about who is gonna ride it. You could run into trouble with insuring it, but I only insure my motorbikes for third party/fire/theft anyway, full comprehensive on motorbikes under R100 000.00 is not really worth it anyways. Premiums are super high. You shouldn’t have an issue with third party insurance.

You definitely can, as long as the sequencing of the last 7 digits follows the correct protocol. I highly doubt most online entry platforms are linked in to the DHA database to verify ID number status. Hell, not even the SAPS criminal record data base is linked to that…

Mate, you bought a small part, opted for three to 7 day shipping, and then posted here on the second full working day after ordering… this is an overreaction, and not fair on a pretty well established players reputation. I reckon the best thing to do is for the mods to bin this entire thread. OP is free to come back and complain if after 7 days he still has no update….

Wowser, talk about a thread derail of note… eitherway OP, surely you can’t be too far off 18? I would just go for a slightly bigger bike from the get go, I have never herd of anyone ever being fined or given trouble over the 125 for under 18s issue. I had a drz400 while in high school, but not in motard trim, had it set up as proper dual sport, and it was a lovely machine. Stopped it for a GS650 Dakar in my Matric year, which was my absolute favourite moto so far… so much so, I’m currently in the market for a well looked after one again, but will swop the front end with parts from the Yamaha WRF450 - did the same mod on my old one, and transformed its off road ability… and losing the ABS was no big deal, since you turn it off on gravel anyway…. but, modern 125/250 4 strokes are really not that terrible for commuter bikes, and a lot lighter on juice, as well as spark plugs and cylinder heads compared to 2strokes. 2 strokes are great for racing, but they have extremely narrow power bands, making them a bit tedious for daily use, as well as often not ideal for weekend soft enduro or dual sport use. Hard enduro charging up cliff faces and stuff is another story, but even then, you should be looking at 250/300cc two strokes, and there aren’t many around that are road legal…. Plus again, they tend to want top end rebuilds after every proper thrashing.

It’s Chinese junk, just well marketed. Prices are decent, but the quality is iffy. For fractionally more money, you can get much higher quality that will also last a lot longer. Bought three pairs of their bibs at Argus expo last year to give them a try. They were fine for the first couple of rides, but ended up throwing them all out after about 6 months. At least my ciovita bibs last me 2 years before the padding is shot and the Lycra is seethrough. And the ciovita is very similar price if you buy on special.

I hear you, and yes, definitely bargains to be had, if you buy smart etc, but also risks to be had, and finding those bargains takes time. When your young, you tend to have lots of time, and less money… but as that ratio changes, time becomes expensive. I assure you I can maintain and work on my own bikes with great skill, and I have all the right tools as well. But I have reached a point in my life where I enjoy riding my bikes a lot more than I do working on them. So I got over my fear of letting others work on my bikes, and rather decided to build up a relationship with a trusty local bike shop, so I can focus my time on the fun stuff, and let them deal with the less fun stuff. I don’t fool myself into thinking anything is a good deal when it comes to bikes, it’s literally a stupidly expensive hobby. But I’m at a point where I don’t want to deal with problems if at all possible. So I would gladly forked out 20-30% more and buy new, and get the peace of mind that comes with that. I would consider buying used again maybe, if the price was 50% or more less than the new price… but until the gap closes between people trying to recoup the money spent during the price hikes in the boom of covid, the difference between new and used just isn’t worth it for me, and I think many others. The amount of resellers also around these days doesn’t help the used market much either… Also, I don’t by bikes expecting to sell them on again, so I am not bothered about losing “resale” value. I made peace with the money lost at purchase time. Too many “cyclists” are also trying to be bike traders in the side, or wanting to upgrade every year or two, and expect to get a good trade in on their old bikes, that drives the consumerism in biking. If everyone just road more and traded less, the whole industries pricing would come back into check, both new and used.

Maybe I’m wrong, and then I deserve to be thrashed for this, but this sets my spidey senses tingling. Post here asking for free parts, that soon enough will end up on Facebook marketplace or the classifieds here. If the OP is legit a new rider looking for help, then a bit more info should be provided. Where is he based? What school is he riding for? Many schools have programs to help development of riders with limited means, and there are many other organisations that also help with this sort of thing. So if the OP let’s us know a bit more, maybe some proper assistance can be forthcoming. But an approach of, hey, I’m new to cycling, please donate stuff to me, does not sit well. So, tell us a bit more about yourself? Depending on where you are and what you need, I would be happy to help if I can. But I’m not just going to empty my spares bins and ship them off to you hoping some of it is useful.

None of my business really, but I must say I am curious. Why on earth would you be selling a bike that has seen so little use. It’s literally not even run in yet. If you realise riding isn’t your thing, I get it, but since your active here, I’m assuming your still into the sport. Surely you would get better value out if actually just riding those bikes, over upgrading them. (Edit: see you answered this the post above, we posted pretty much the same time) My personal take on the used market is this: I joined this site to look for a good deal on a used trail bike, but after lots of searching, I decided to buy new instead. I think there are some good deals on the used market below R40k, but anything above that, I would rather shop new. New deals on new bikes are starting to filter through as prices normalise after the totally skewed market conditions during covid… but guys selling their used bikes are trying to recoup money based on overinflated purchase prices from two or three years back, so the prices on the classifieds are remaining pretty high relative to new prices. When looking at spending 65k on a used bike with the potential risks involved, and uncertainty about warranty claims if something major goes wrong, or spending R75k on a similar brand new bike, with none of those concerns, I will buy new every time. I think the further up the price chain you go, the more this decision flexes towards new…

I have always used the courier guy. R500.00 JHB or Durban to Cape Town. Takes a day or two. But you must box yourself.

I literally said not just e-bikes but regular bikes too. In fact from my experience actually doing this in Dublin, the bulk of guys doing deliveries were on regular bikes. Also, e-bikes are pretty efficient actually, and can pretty easily be charged off of small, solar based systems. Even if charged off fossil fuel powered grids, e-bikes are much much much more efficient than any internal combustion engine….short trip inner city stuff is exactly the use case where electric mobility makes sense. but, like I have said a dozen times already, you can if reasonably fit, just as easily deliver with a regular bike, which lowers the barrier to entry significantly, and it works all over the world.

Not just e-bikes, but regular bikes are commonly used for delivery services in cities all over the world. They work extremely well. There are loads of benefits over motorbikes, including the relatively obvious environmental ones. They take up less space, they can travel on bike paths, cut across city parks and more. In heavily congested traffic, bicycles are routinely quicker than motorbikes, as they aren’t as restricted as motorbikes. But it clearly isn’t a workable solution in South Africa, and some good reasons for that have already been given. I don’t buy that they are cheaper than motorbikes. For local delivery purposes, you definately don’t need an e-bike, a regular bike would work just fine, with a fit rider. A workable bicycle can be had for less than R5k on the used market. Also, delivery riders aren’t doing hundreds of km on a shift. Most deliveries are within a 5km radius. I have done bicycle delivery in Dublin, on a standard hardtail MTB. If I did 60km in an afternoon shift, that would be a lot. I asked the question, because I was considering doing the same in Somerset West, but realised it’s not an option, and it seemed weird to me why. I ride all around SW almost daily on my commuter bike, and don’t find the roads that dangerous. I also spend a lot of time in Stellenbosch, and also don’t find cycling around there particularly life threatening. I am South African, born and bred, and understand the realities of crime and so on here too. I’m not naive to that. I wouldn’t want to do this in downtown JHB or Durban, but SW/Stellies/ and parts of Cape Town, it definately seems a better options than the rickety unroadworthy cars doing food delivery, or the danger to themselves scooter brigade that obviously have no clue about how to ride safely. Plus it has a much lower barrier to entry, and can have poor individuals working directly for the delivery companies, instead of working for some kingpin running fleets of scooters and fleecing them all the way. Not trying to fix what’s not broken, or re-invent the wheel, it’s just one of those sad realities again that South Africa has such a unique set of problems that things that work all over the rest of the world, don’t work here. We should all be working on plans to have less motorised transport in cities, not more…

Interesting. Can you recall which company/delivery service specifically they were working with?

All good and well, but still another company one needs to work for, who then loans you out to the delivery companies. In other cities around the world, all you need is a bicycle and a smartphone, and you can work for yourself. If I could buy one of those pathway bikes, sign up to an app like Uber eats, and be on my way, great, but I can’t, I have to work for pathway cycles… just ads another link in the supply chain, and besides, I don’t need a bike, I already have one, I just want to use it to do deliveries…. One thing South Africa is great at, is creating lots and lots of middlemen. That’s essentially half the reason eskom is in the state it is in…

So basically just another thing that works wonderfully lol over the rest of the world, in busy capital cities, with loads of traffic etc, but not the rampant out of control criminal element, which makes this not viable/workable in South Africa, sadly. Not even in the relatively first world parts of it…

This yes, a Uber eats delivery guy was knocked off his bike on the corner of our street yesterday afternoon actually… and it’s a pretty quiet neighbourhood… but a lot of this is down to the really bad riding of the delivery scooter guys too, many of whom I don’t think have any training what so ever. If you have no road safety training, and no real understanding of consequence, that’s always going to end badly, no matter what your riding. On a bicycle, one would expect them to be a little more weary of their surroundings. I do think in South Africa, bicycle based delivery riders should have a sunrise to sunset curfew though, because, well, it’s South Africa after all. But, there is always a but. If you think of areas like see point/greenpoint, pretty much all of Stellenbosch, most of Somerset west, we actually have pretty cycle friendly road networks, and were riding on those roads all the time anyway, so it’s not exactly like I’m putting myself in any more danger than I did while doing my daily commute this afternoon, stopping at the pub for a beer on the way home, grabbing some groceries from the porra grocer, then cruising down Somerset west main road in the rain on my bike this afternoon.

Yes, this is an issue, but essentially in that case, they only really need to steal the phone of a connected delivery person, because that’s where we send them the gate access codes etc.